The first Earth Day in 1970 represented a spirit of activism that reshaped public attitudes about environmental problems. Through the remainder of the 1970s and into the 1980s, these attitudes were transformed into policies, then laws and regulations. With regard to managing and cleaning up hazardous waste, the end results were CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or the Superfund), RCRA (the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act), and regulations specifically for PCBs under TCSA (the Toxic Substances Control Act). Hazardous waste management is one of the best examples of the "command and control" style of environmental regulation, and thousands of pages are devoted to the standards implementing CERCLA, RCRA and TSCA. Finding the needed information can be a daunting task for even the most experienced reader of regulations. While CD-ROMs and search engines on the Internet ease some of this pain, The Complete Guide to the Hazardous Waste Regulations is a welcome response to the mass of unwieldy regulations.

The book is a straightforward, readable summary of the regulations enforcing CERCLA, RCRA and the PCB requirements in TSCA. Discussions of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) and HTMA (Hazardous Materials Transportation Act) are incorporated as these apply to hazardous waste. Organization of the chapters mirrors presentation of the regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), so the reader can cross-reference the book contents with the regulatory language. Discussion of each section condenses pages of requirements into a few paragraphs each, which makes easier the job of understanding the purpose of a particular regulation. Flow charts and tables are used to good effect for organizing the information. …